Kurt Vonnegut’s Advice on Writing (Applied to Speaking)
Kurt Vonnegut, author of Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat’s Cradle, and Breakfast of Champions, gave this advice about writing:
- Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
- Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
- Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
- Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.
- Start as close to the end as possible.
- Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
- Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
- Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
His advice applies most directly, of course, to writing fiction or to telling stories. But I think audiences of all sorts would be a lot happier if speakers took his advice to heart.
Here’s my way of tweaking his rules for speakers:
1. Don’t waste your audience’s time.
Their time is their most preciously guarded resource. Make good use of it. Never feel the need to fill the time you’re assigned. It’s never okay to go over your allotted time. (Doing so is rude to the meeting planner, to your audience, and to any other speaker who is on after you.) But it’s always okay to go under your allotted time. Say what you need to say and, having said it, sit down.
2. Give the audience at least one idea they can root for.
Build each speech about one — and only one — idea. And treat it with the same respect that a novelist treats his or her characters. Define your idea. Describe it. Show how it works. Tell a story about it — either about how you discovered or developed it or about how it has affected other people. Make people like your idea, not just agree with it.
3. Every audience members should want something.
If you can’t make them want something from your speech — an insight or a practical tip or maybe just a good time — you’re wasting their time. Which is a violation of Rule #1. Show them how your idea will benefit them in some way.
4. Every sentence (and phrase) must do one of two things — educate or entertain.
Educate = tell people something they don’t already know or give them a new way of understanding what they do know. Entertain = keep them interested, since bored people stop listening and stop caring.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
This rule doesn’t even need to be revised. Cut out the introductory sentences and sentiments. “I’m so happy to be with you today…” “What an honor it is for me to be addressing you…” “You’re such a great group of people…” Churchill called opening pleasantries “opening banalities.” Dive right into your best material.
6. Be tough on your idea.
Test your idea against logic, against other ideas, against your own self-interest. If you’re soft on your idea, your audience will tear into it themselves. If you’re afraid of the Q&A session, it’s usually because there’s a killer question you don’t want to be asked. So ask it yourself. (And be sure you have a good answer.)
7. Speak to please just one person: Yourself.
(I addressed this rule here.)
8. Give your audience all the information they need — but no more — as soon as possible.
Explain the background. Define your terms. I’m okay with keeping your audience in suspense. Just don’t keep them in ignorance. It you confuse them or make them feel out of it, they’ll tune you out.
How would you apply these rules?